Do you ride mountain bikes?
One time at a demo day.
The ChiCrossCup series is about as off the pavement as I get. I stick pretty much only to the road.
I think the best advice I can give as a relative beginner is just don’t overthink it, and don’t be worried about laying the bike down. You likely have a lot more traction than you think you have. Corner in decent conditions with the same technique you would during a crit. Weight the bike the same way, pressure inside handlebar the same way. You’re just going slower. Learn to trust your tires.
Is this your first year in cross? If so, it’s been, relatively speaking…a bit of a muddy disaster. So…comfort with cornering offroad (and again…technique is really not dramatically different unless you’re in off camber type stuff), and just getting used to putting power down continuously even when the bike is sliding all over the place. The stakes for losing traction here are a lot less than in a crit…so test your limits.
Seems like lots of Chicago racers in this thread. 
Speaking of mountain biking… some single track trails are really fun on the cx bike. There’s a local route I like to do where I ride my cx bike 45 minutes to the local trails, do 60 minutes of singletrack, and then ride 45 minutes home. Lot’s of fun!
Where Where??! I’ve been thinking of doing the same thing. Never been to palos… have been contemplating taking my cross bike there.
Focus on crashing. That’s the advice I see consistently - crash on purpose. Set up a couple practice corners…or just use practice laps on Sunday. Take a corner as fast as you’re comfortable with. Then take it faster. Keep doing that until you wash out. It’s not like a crit…you just get back up and continue on like nothing happened. Now you know how much you need to back things off.
My problem is after a couple laps I can’t go fast enough to test my traction anymore lol.
@TheCyclissimo, stay in the 4s a while longer. You just need to get comfortable off pavement, and relax. You ride so well on the road, and I’ve seen flashes of that on the 'cross bike. Your results show it too this year, you’ve been consistently finishing better every week. Just wait until you get comfortable before you upgrade, because the 3s aren’t necessarily better racers, they’re just stronger and more aggressive. Just like the road. I think new tires will help you out a lot, especially with this weekend’s race looking… slick.
For context, the first year I actually raced cyclocross I did 20 races. I did 10 as a 5, then upgraded to the 4s. As a 4, I races both cat4 races and single speed races (I’m a big proponent of single speed for skill development). It took 19 races for me to feel comfotable in the 4s and put in for 3s. That’s a lot of races, and all that time was 100% dedicated to 'cross. In hindsight, I do wish I’d waited a little longer to upgrade to 3 because I never really got to play at the front of the races (I only made it to the podium once).
Parts of Palos can be fun on a cross bike, but a lot of it is really rocky and asking for a rim dent. That being said, everyone should ride down bullwhip on a 'cross bike at least once. Preferably many more times. Personally I really like the cemetery loop for 'cross bikes.
Good advice here. Being afraid of crashing slows you down. Let go of that @TheCyclissimo and you’ll pick up time in corners. You’ve obviously got the fitness to make up time between corners, so I’d wager (without seeing you race) that you’re scrubbing too much speed at corners/features.
And get a mountain bike and ride it. Lots.
Hell it’s advice I need to follow myself haha. I had a pretty good handle on this over the summer while practicing…but that was on dry, fresh grass. Everything changes when conditions change. I really need to be better about using practice laps to take a handful of corners hard and fast, and just tripod through at faster speeds until my tires break free.
A really good chance for experience is doing a second race on race days. Your second race can’t hurt your ranking, so race it and focus more on handling and cornering and technique at race pace.
Do you mean get a MTB and ride it on terrain that you couldn’t ride on a cyclocross bike? I got a MTB to get better at cyclocross but I keep second-guessing myself on whether I should be putting in more time on my cyclocross bike or MTB.
I do. I do the 4 first, then the 4/5 about 10-15 minutes after the first race.
I place better in the 4/5. I assumed it was just the difference in the field…but it seems I’m actually consistently slightly faster in the second race.
Not sure if it’s being warmed up…difference in staging, or just going harder because I know I’m done for the day at the finish line.
Edit: Hrmm just checked my results the last 3 weeks. Yea 15-35 seconds faster each time in the second race.
If I were you I’d just ride my cx bike everywhere. Work on turns, hairpins, leaning the bike, how fast you can take turns on grass before dumping.
Riding downhill and lift/enduro laps really got me to another level on the cx and my gravel bike. Hovering the saddle, getting that bike leaning hard, weight centered, and just rallying it has found so much more free speed on the cx course. I’m not afraid to crash. Probably dump the bike almost every race.
At gravel races, it’s kind of funny. You can spot roadies out a mile away with how slow they descend or just creep around fast and flat corners. The mtbers, they are just putting time on them.
@jeremy @TheCyclissimo @anon67840561
I ride at Silver Lake Park in Salem, Wi. It’s MUCH better than Palos for a cx bike. Some roots, but not too bad. The entire east side is super smooth with LOTS of tight corners that are perfect to practice cx turns on.
Also, I think it’s better than Palos on a mtb as well.
Another thing, I’ve noticed I’m faster in the 4/5 race as well. But I think it’s because I’ve had more pre-ride laps and I’m also more relaxed. I noticed I’m riding a lot smoother and taking corners faster in the 4/5 race and end up going faster with less power.
Depends on your goals; if you’re looking at “next couple of weeks” progress, ride your cross bike.
For bigger picture “have a better understanding of what different kinds of bikes are capable of,” ride the mtb.
I think that mtb riding makes a cross racer better in the same way that racing cross makes a crit racer better.
Booyah got my first Cat 4 win yesterday out of around 30 riders. Had a second row call-up on a paved start. Missed my pedal for a few seconds but was able to slot into 8th. A few passes on a dirt road straightaway and then a few more on the run-up got me to 3rd right behind my teammate. We both got past the race leader and then I squeezed by my teammate a bit later on. From then on I added about 10 seconds per lap to my lead.
It was freaking cold at about 17 deg F, but I layered up well. The mud ruts were so frozen it was like riding on bumpy concrete. I got some video and posted the first 2 laps here.
Team went 1-2 so it was a good day!
way to go! those ruts were killer, the course would have been great otherwise. went down hard on that patch of ice at the bottom of the back side hill and ended up about 30s behind, but managed to hunt down a couple people and finished 15/18
Two good results yesterday; finally finished in the top half of a cat-3 open race, and then got 4th in the single-speed race. Wasn’t sure I’d have the legs to finish the second race but I actually felt better in that race.
Most importantly, I had a blast racing.
Thanks. Ya I was worried those ruts were going to rip the tires off my wheels! On to the next one!
Is it too early to start asking the Seattle area guys about tire recommendations for nationals in Tacoma?
Should we just dust off our favorite mud tires, or is there a chance that mid or dry tires might end up being appropriate?
Asking for a friend…
a friend that’s really me…
who lives in the high desert where we don’t really get much mud…
and who’s wondering if he should mount up the mud tires for the next few races, just to get used to them, even though the races probably won’t be muddy.